“Trust your ears.”  “It’s what sounds right to you.”   These are popular refrains that you’ve read in just about every article (many of them right here) about choosing microphones, positioning them and mixing sound.  But if you’re going to rely on your ears to hear and identify the essential features of a well-balanced and professional sounding mix, you may need to train them first.  Hearing and listening is not the same thing, as any parent of teenagers will tell you.

Can you detect the difference between a Telecaster and a Les Paul?  A Vox Continental and a Nord Electro? Tremolo versus vibrato?  Fact is whether you’re a seasoned pro or a beginner, there’s a wide range of resources available to help you develop and fine-tune your critical listening skills.  This article may help you get started.

Michael White and students

Necessary Equipment: Your Ears

Let’s start with a simple definition, courtesy of recording engineer/producer and instructor Michael White, whose credits include everything from redesigning Whitney Houston’s studio (he was also her chief engineer for 15 years) to ‘behind the glass’ mixing for David Byrne, The Rolling Stones and dozens of others:

“Critical listening primarily comes from the engineer’s point of view.  You’re listening to the physical details of the music – frequency response, dynamic range, tone, imaging, and how instruments are blended together.”

Now, let’s contrast that with analytical thinking, also a factor in creating a professional mix:

“Analytical listening is all about feeling and meaning.   It’s important to understand that the emotional intention of a musical performance is reflected in the sound.”

How to Improve Your Mixes

We’ll trust your heart to decode the meaning of the music and concentrate, for now, on a few fundamentals and exercises that will help you boost your critical listening confidence.  For this, we’ve turned to Canadian neighbor, writer and recording whiz Mark Garrison who starts us off by deconstructing the elements of a mix and challenges you to tackle a critical listening exercise.

Before we start, though, let’s look at the components that make a great mix. When teaching mixing, Mark likes to use a variation on the elements Bobby Owsinski outlined in The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook.

Balance
Do all instruments feel like they have appropriate weight in the mix? Are any instruments lost in the mix because they’re overpowered? Are some instruments more prominent then others? (The answer may often be ‘yes’ to the last one, but that should be a deliberate decision and not an accident.)

Panorama
Do instruments sit at various points in stereo field (left to right speakers)? Does the point of interest shift within this field?

Frequency Range
Are all frequencies represented somewhat equally? Is there something happening in all frequency ranges? (There are times when we deliberately have little happening in a specific frequency range – a violin concerto would sound ridiculous with pounding bass. Again this should be a conscious decision.)

Dimension
Do some instruments sound closer or farther away than others? Is there a sense of movement in the mix?

Dynamics
Does the song change over its duration? Most often in recording we use the term dynamics to refer to changes in volume, but we need to consider other dynamic changes such as tempo, time signature, key, or major/minor tonality.

Interest
There are two important sides to interest. First is the hook – is there something memorable about the mix? This could be a melodic hook, or a memorable tonality (think Cher’s “Do You Believe” or Smashmouth’s “Walking On The Sun”).

The second, and less thought-about consideration is this: What pulls the listener through the song? When the lead instrument stops playing, what takes over as the focus of the song? The analogy I like to use is a TV show or play. If the characters leave the stage, other characters must enter right away to keep the viewer’s interest. If a TV show had long gaps of just background between dialogue and action everyone would get bored and change the channel. Music isn’t any different.

Got all that?

Good quality headphones like Shure SRH440 retail at about $100.

Try This at Home: An Exercise in Critical Listening 

Everyone agrees that training your ears by studying music production and engineering is an important part of becoming a better engineer, producer or artist. According to Michael White, “Most people do this naturally by listening to loads of music, but fail to study as deep as what is necessary.   Audio ear training involves learning how to listen to a music production and what to listen for.   This is the most beneficial method for achieving better results with your own music.”

Here’s a helpful exercise that our Canadian friend Mark uses with his students.

What you’ll need:

• A good pair of earphone or headphones
• Sun King” (from Abbey Road) by The Beatles

Let’s start with one just about everyone knows. “Sun King” by The Beatles.

Producer George Martin and Abbey Road sound engineer Geoff Emerick

Here’s a little background: According to The Beatles Bible, “The Beatles began recording Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard on July 24, 1969. They taped 35 takes of the basic track: Lennon played rhythm guitar and sang a guide vocal, McCartney played bass, Harrison was on lead guitar and Starr on drums. The next day the group overdubbed vocals, piano and organ, the latter played by George Martin. They then finished the two songs five days later, with the addition of more vocals, piano, organ and percussion.” (The producer, of course, was Sir George Martin and the house sound engineers were Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald.)

This is what Mark hears:

Balance: Note how the kick and the bass are distinct, as are the two guitars. In the second half of the song, the vocals are big and prominent without drowning out any of the other instruments.

Panorama: From the hard panning to the moving instruments, this mix takes great advantage of the stereo field. When the vocals come in they are everywhere, rather than singular.

Frequency Range: Each instrument has its own place; nothing gets in the way of anything else. Thick lows and sparkling highs.

Dimension: In a reversal from the usual way of doing things, the bass and kick are right up front with the guitars and keys farther back. When the vocals come in, they are farther back still.

Dynamics: Subtle at first, though big when the vocals come in.

Interest: The interplay between the instruments grabs you at the beginning and leads you right to the vocals that take their place as the focal point.

You Can’t Listen if You Can’t Hear

We all know musicians who regard their hearing loss as a kind of merit badge. Blame Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) – the result of repeated – or even accidental (think explosion) – exposure to high SPLs.  Standing in front of stage monitors night after night, turning your iPod up to 11, spending hours in an ear-blasting concert venue are examples of situations that can damage your hearing.

Just 15 minutes of exposure to high-decibel noise or music can cause permanent hearing loss.  That’s right.  Permanent. Research indicates that 30% of rock musicians have a measurable hearing loss.  Classical musicians fare even worse – with up to 52% experiencing hearing impairment.

The good news?  Hearing loss can be prevented. Keeping your hearing sharp can be as easy as:

• Being aware of the problem and potential risks to your hearing
• Giving your ears a rest by taking short breaks
• Keeping volume levels down
• Limiting the amount of time you spend in a loud environment
• Wearing hearing protection when involved in a loud activity.  Check out musician earplugs when you’re playing or if you’re in a loud concert hall.
• Be alert to noise levels in your environment
• Increasing the distance between you and the sound source – this means standing at an angle from the source – not in front of it.
• Listening to your own ears and being aware of changes in your hearing
• Visiting an audiologist

One for the Money, Two for the Show

With a good pair of ears and your own critical listening experiments (deconstructing Mumford & Sons, Mos Def or better still, your own recordings), you’ll have all the equipment and the skills necessary to listen critically.  Do it regularly and before you know it, it will become such a natural process that your mixes will improve and your creativity will soar.

ABOUT MARK GARRISON: Author of The Encyclopedia of Home Recording, Mark is a recording engineer and multi-instrumentalist from British Columbia, Canada.  For the past decade, he has taught recording through classes, workshops, articles, and as a contributor to AudioTUTS+. He focuses on how to create better recordings through a greater understanding of the tools and techniques of the studio.

ABOUT MICHAEL WHITE: L.A.-based recording engineer and producer Michael has handled mixing, mastering, tracking and editing for the recording, broadcast and film industries. With a career that took off at NYC’s fabled Electric Lady Studios, he has lent his talents to over 35 gold and platinum records. He is an independent producer and shares his audio expertise on his website and at his online music production school.

Noise cancelling headphones have become very popular in consumer markets over the past few years.  Especially around the holidays, TV spots featuring de-stressed travelers in headphone Nirvana seem to dominate the airwaves. This has caused a little bit of confusion about the difference between sound isolation (as used in Shure earphones) and noise cancellation headphones like the ones you see advertised on television.

Noise cancellation is an electronic process.   It was originally developed to improve radio communications in noisy environments like aircraft cockpits.  There’s a microphone built into each cup of the headphones that samples the ambient noise near the ear. That noise signal is fed into an electronic circuit that analyzes it and creates a mirror image of the noise, then adds the noise back into the music signal.   Some of the real noise is cancelled out by the mirror image inverse noise.

It works best on steady low frequency noise below a thousand hertz or so, for example, the drone of aircraft engines.  It doesn’t work as well at removing speech or other rapidly changing sounds.  Because this is an electronic process, noise cancellation circuitry requires a battery to function.  And like all circuitry, it has some degree of hiss and even some digital processing artifacts.  Some people complain that when they’re wearing noise-cancelling headphones they hear a whooshing or a rushing sound  - or detect varying air pressure in their ears.

Which Shure headphones are noise-cancelling?

The answer is none.   Shure doesn’t manufacture any noise-cancelling  headphones.

Sound isolation earphones work passively, the same way that earplugs do.  The soft pliable sleeves that Shure supplies with its earphones fit snugly into your ears and physically block the outside noise from entering the ear.  Just like earplugs, the fit is very important and that’s why Shure supplies multiple sizes and multiple styles of sleeves with all of their earphones so you can experiment to make sure that your earphones are fitting perfectly into your ear.

Sound isolation actually provides greater noise reduction than noise cancellation circuitry does.  In fact, a couple of years ago researchers at Virginia Tech concluded that Shure earphones performed significantly better than other brands when they were measured head to head.   Sound isolation works across the entire audible spectrum, not just low frequencies and not just slow, droning kinds of noise.  Sound isolation is great for blocking speech, a noisy television, music – it works in all kinds of environments whether you’re sitting on a plane, a train or walking down the street.  And no electronics means that there are no batteries, no added hiss, no digital artifacts – nothing except the music, the movie or the game itself.

Which Shure earphones are sound isolating?

The answer is: all of them.

Listen, listen.

Everybody wonders whether you can really hear the difference between the earbuds that came with your MP3 player, sound-isolating earphone and noise-cancelling headphones.  The answer is ‘Yes!’ Click on the audio links below to see what differences you can detect.

In an airplane

Here’s a sample recording what you might hear in an airplane using the earphones that came with your standard MP3 player:

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of sound-isolating earphones in the same environment.

On the street

Here’s a sample recording what you might hear on the street using the earphones that came with your standard MP3 player:

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of sound-isolating earphones in the same environment.

On a train

Here’s a sample recording what you might hear on a train using the earphones that came with your standard MP3 player:

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones

This is what you’d hear if you were wearing a pair of sound-isolating earphones in the same environment.

Assuming that the earphone are fit properly, which admittedly tends to take a little bit of experimentation, we think that sound isolation does a better job of eliminating the background noise in a noisy environment so that all you have to do is pay attention to the music, the movie or whatever you’re listening to on your music player, computer or tablet.

Creating a seal between your ear and ambient noise is part of the magic of sound-isolating earphones.   Shure offers a variety of sleeves with its earphones to assure the listener of a perfect fit.

Experts and audiophiles like blogger Salman Ashraft tend to agree.  Here’s what he had to say in a recent post:  “Sound-isolating headphones simply work better in my opinion. Since sound is never introduced to the ear in the first place (because of the seal), you don’t have to fight sound with sound. It’s akin to solving a problem before it happens. With noise cancelling headphones/earphones, the external noise already gets into your ear and music while it is simultaneously alleviated with opposing frequencies. Sound Isolating gets the vote from me in preserving good audio quality”.

Other considerations

There are two other factors to consider in making a choice: convenience and cost.  It may be a challenge to keep the cords from tangling, but it’s a lot easier to carry a pair of earbuds in your pocket or backpack than it is to tote a big pair of headphones around. Plus they’re inconspicuous and they don’t require batteries.

Since sound-isolating earphones lack the additional electronics needed to cancel noise, they tend to be much less expensive.  All Shure earphones are sound-isolating and are available in a wide range of prices – starting at $99.  Compare that to entry level noise-cancelling headphones three times the price.

Like most decisions audio, making the best choice is just a matter of your personal preferences.  Check out the reviews, borrow a pair of headphones from a friend or associate and decide for yourself.

Check out Shure’s new educational video on the differences between open back and closed back headphones to determine which headphone type is right for you.

What’s the advantage?

Open back headphones have ports that allow sound to enter and exit through the earcups. Audiophiles and engineers choose them because the sound can be more natural, open, and accurate (than closed back headphones); offering a wide stereo image and increased depth of field. For mixing and mastering, the sound produced by open back headphones more closely approximates monitor speakers. The advantage, according to Shure Product Manager Michael Johns?  “Purely acoustic accuracy.”

We asked session player and recording engineer Cliff Goldmacher about his experience with these headphones and here’s what he said:

“Open back headphones are for critical listening.  That’s a different headphone application than the typical recording studio tracking session.   Since I’m also a session guitarist, a lot of my listening situations involve being in front of a beautiful large diaphragm microphone that picks up everything.   In a situation like that, I’ll use the Shure SRH440 or SRH840 closed back headphones.  They do a beautiful job of containing the clicktrack or whatever else is going on in my headphones.

But there are certain times when I really want to have a second opinion from the studio monitors  – where sound isolation is not mission critical but detail is critical.  The kind of detail I can get from open back headphones, the kind of response and evenness across the frequency spectrum makes a huge difference.  For me, it’s a secondary or a tertiary way of critically listening to mixes so I am sure that the detail is there.”

How to Make the Best Choice for Your Application

First of all, let’s take a quick look at the other type of headphone: closed back.  These, of course, don’t have openings that let sound enter or exit the earcup. This makes them ideal for recording tracks and broadcast applications such as podcasting, because the microphone won’t pick up sound that’s bleeding from the headphones.

They’re also a good choice if you want a private listening experience, since they provide a degree of isolation from what’s going on around you, whether it’s the ambient noise of an airplane or the television in the next room.

Next, let’s assume that you’re a recording engineer or an audiophile and you’re looking for the accuracy of open back headphones.  Which of the two new Shure models is right for you?  Michael Johns, Product Manager at Shure, provided the guidance.

 SRH1440

  “SRH1440 headphones have lower impedance and higher sensitivity. That means this headphone can be driven by a consumer electronic or mobile device since it requires less voltage to get the best output. For the consumer, it can be used very well with a portable device.”

Choose this one if you are a:    Recording engineer or personal listening user who may want to use them with mobile devices like your smartphone or MP3 player.

SRH1840

  “SRH1840 headphones have lower sensitivity and a higher impedance. That means they require more voltage, so they’re better suited for professional applications where there’s an external amplifier like the kind you’d find in a recording studio or home stereo system.”

Choose this one if you are a:   Recording engineer or an audiophile with an external amplifier

The Backstory

When you stop to think about it, headphones are speakers. And according to Michael Johns, there are almost as many types of headphones as there are loudspeakers.  Certainly, Shure’s headphone category is growing, from the SRH240 and SRH440 introductions just three years ago to over eight today, including the new open back models.

When those of us old enough to remember think about headphones, we cast our minds back forty years or more, thinking about the “cans” we plugged into our tube amplifiers back at the dorm.  The effect was mind-blowing.

But headphones go back much further than that.

Radio days: Earphones like these were used for broadcast applications.

• Early 1900s:  Sound was transmitted along telephone lines, with uncomfortable,  sometimes shock-producing headphones that used ‘moving iron transducers’.  First users: telephone operators and the US Navy.
• 1920s:   Radio broadcasters adopt headphones.
• 1930s:  Germany’s Beyerdynamic begins marketing headphones to consumers.  Acceptance is limited.
• 1950s:  Jazz musician John Koss invents the first stereo headphone geared to audiophiles.
• 1970s:  Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation becomes SONY and toward the end of the decade, introduces the Walkman with MDR3 supra-aural headphones that weighed about 75% less than popular around-the-ear headphones
• 1980s:  SONY’s Discman debuts in 1984, followed by MP3 players  and eventually smartphones.
• 2004:  Shure establishes the Personal Audio Business Unit with the successful introduction of its E Series Earphones.
• 2007:  Shure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphones names one of “100 Best Products of 2007” by PC World magazine.
• 2009:  Shure introduces three professional headphone models: the SRH240, SRH440 and SRH840.
• 2012:  Open-back Headphone models SRH1440 and SRH1840 debut. 

 The ubiquitous Walkman with its lightweight headphones 

Glossary

Here’s a helpful cheat sheet just in case you don’t know your supra-aurals from your circumaurals.

Cans – Slang for headphones

Circumaural – Headphones that surround the ear. (SRH1440 and SRH1840 are circumaural headphones.)

Earphones – Also called earbuds, these ubiquitous listening devices were first used by musicians with in-ear monitor systems and were later popularized by iPod users. (Shure SE535, for example.)

Open Back –  Headphones that are designed to allow sound to pass through the back of the earcup. The effect is sometimes described as having an open, accurate or natural sound. (Shure  SRH1440 and SRH1840 are examples.)

Noise cancelling – Headphones that reduce unwanted ambient sounds (i.e., acoustic noise) by means of active noise control (ANC). This involves using one or more microphones placed near the ear and electronic circuitry that uses the microphone signal to generate an “anti-noise” signal.

Reference headphones – Professional headphones that accurately reproduce the entire frequency heard by the human ear. (SRH940 is an example.)

Sound-isolating –  Characteristic of earphones or headphones that prevent unwanted sound from entering the ear by physical means – a snug fit, use of foam or other material to reduce ambient noise.

Supra-aural – Headphones that sit on top of the ear.  Walkmans came with this type of headphone in the days before iPods.

Cliff Goldmacher is an engineer, producer and owner of recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee and Sonoma, California. A multi-instrumentalist, Cliff has recorded, played on and produced thousands of demos for major and independent publishers, brand new songwriters and Grammy winners.

Michael Johns is a Product Manager at Shure managing PSM and Headphone products. Michael has a degree in Sound Engineering with a concentration in Recording from Columbia College Chicago. He has also been DJing for over 15 years and specializes in producing “mash-ups” and remixes using software such as Ableton Live and Apple Logic.